1965 World's Championship
- Newport HarborRegatta Results
Report from the 1966 Star Class Log
Note: This report has been scanned in by Ed Sprague. For a collection
of Worlds' reports plus photographs contact Ed Sprague (
ejspraguejr@mac.com ) to order his book "The San Diego Bay Star
Fleet".

Commodore Paul H.
Smart reviews the shore activities:

Charles Lewsadder
and Donald Bever, 1965 World's Champions

Not all the talent
was concentrated in the 35 top-flight skippers at Newport Harbor, nor
yet in their crews. Everywhere there was high-level organization and management.
Commodore Mackel and his wife Jean and Mr. and Mrs. Cotton were everywhere,
every day, always on hand when something had to be done. But it was all
so smoothly done it sometimes went unnoticed. From early morning (8 a.m.)
to early morning (1, 2 or 3 a.m.) they were arranging, doing, or preventing
from happening a thousand things.

And the ladies! As
you entered the door on first arrival there was a whole phalanx ranged
at long tables. Of course we expected cordiality from southern California,
and their efficiency was no surprise, but what did impress us was that
they were all there every day: nobody collapsed under the continual barrage
of questions, frustrations and irritations, and they were as kind and
pleasant and helpful on the last day as on the first.

A minor but typical
detail indicates the thoroughness and imagination with which things were
done. For the contestants there was a bountiful supply of California's
fresh fruit, replenished as rapidly as it disappeared, and arranged by
an interior decorator. Daily this arrangement, including the color scheme,
was altered, reaching a climax on the final day as the World's Championship
Trophy was heaped full and overflowing with fruit that can scarcely be
obtained except by picking it where it grows.

At the final awards
banquet each contestant was presented with a handsome full color photograph
of his own boat taken during the series, through the courtesy of Eastman
Kodak.

The international
race committee was loaded with considerable brass. Bill Severance is a
Gold Star crew, as is Dick Edwards. Former International President and
World's Champion Charlie de Cardenas
was a member, as was Commodore Smart, and President Frank
Gordon was on hand for part of the series.

W. Glenn Waterhouse,
who won the World's in 1933, and former Gold Star crews Mark Yorston and
Jim Hill were among the spectators every day. There were seven Gold Star
winners of the past out there on the course trying to prevent some newcomer
from breaking into their exclusive club. ... They failed.

Not every entry
can be a winner....
The writer of this loser's-eye view request that he remain "as anonymous
now as we were during the series, just another boat back there somewhere"

We got home last Friday
(the 3rd) in time to put the boat in the water for our final races over
Labor Day weekend in order to win the season. ...

But California was
another story. I could not at all cope with the sea or ever guess, which
way shifts would come. We hit the beach in the 1st, 3rd and 4th races;
nothing there. Only the last race was that the way to go - and naturally,
that day we went out to sea. But I sailed like a real plumber and got
just what I deserved. Had a wonderful time, as we expected; it sure is
a great place for a series - except we could have used more wind.

I can't help much
with your report, because we were always so far back that I have no idea
who reached various marks first and when or how the lead changed. They
posted all positions at every mark on a bulletin board at the club house
by means of on-the-spot information received by radio, so that the people
at the club were kept in touch and probably knew more about the race than
we did while it was happening. But I did not take that information down.
In fact we tried to forget the series, except that it was a great vacation!

Comment by the
Champions - Donald Bever and Chuck Lewsadder
We measured in two suits of sails but used the same sails every day because
wind conditions were always the same, on the medium-light side. Maché
is a quite standard Old Greenwich 1964 boat with a medium weight rig.
I installed the fittings and a few gadgets myself, but I don't think they
make the boat any faster, they only make life easier for me.

It was a good series
for us, but I don't think we were going any faster than the top of the
pack. From Comer's experience here in '59 and my own at San Diego in '61,
we knew that the west coast boats would be very good off the wind. However,
we seemed equally as good, as a result of considerable concentration on
this phase all season; and that might have been the key, plus Lady Luck,
of course, whom we always welcome aboard.

Chuck Lewsadder is
a real World's Champion crew, and quite possibly I couldn't have won the
series without him. Nevertheless I do regret that one of my previous crews
couldn't have been along to enjoy the series and the tremendous welcome
we received after winning; I've never experienced anything quite like
it.

Regatta Report
Whenever Stars gather for a big series we always hear that conditions
"are not normal." The 1965 World's was no exception. The usual
8-12 knot westerly and accompanying current from the same quarter failed
to materialize. The lack of current and southerly winds of 5 to 8 knots
were a contrast to the standard conditions experienced at Newport in 1959.

There was one other
abnormal occurrence: for the first time since 1947 a west coast boat did
not win in local waters. Stripped of local advantage, all were left to
battle as best their sailing skills would permit.

Only two, Buchan
and Burnham, both former Gold
Star winners and strong favorites to pick up a second World's Championship,
could match the outstanding performance of Don Bever, and then for only
four races. Both Burnham and Buchan had earlier displayed their wares
during Newport Harbor Race weekend and the tune-up race prior to the series.
The winds were light; and when Bever showed well, those who were supposed
to know attributed his showing to the light flukey conditions, unwilling
to admit that the two Gold Star favorites would permit themselves to be
displaced. But the weather that prevailed before the series continued,
and Bever and crew Lewsadder also continued ...

In a series that provided
the also-rans with lots of excuses about windshifts, holes, unpredictable
currents or lack of same, it was interesting to see the same three boats
finishing in the top five every day. Only Buchan's Frolic was relegated
to 7th in the final race, and this was because Buchan was compelled to
take chances in the final lap in a last-ditch attempt to catch the flying
Maché. The only other boat that appeared capable of giving
the Three B's trouble was Gary Comer's Turmoil, of Southern Fake
Michigan. Gary seems to like west coast sailing; he only barely lost a
heartbreaker at Newport in 1959 to Lowell North. North Star, the
perennial boat to beat, did not display her usual speed, and although
finishing 6th for the series, was only up in the money in one race for
a daily second.

The defender Don Edler
sailed a fine series if one counts only four races. However, the disastrous
fourth race found Big Daddy in 31st place, obliterating all chances
of a repeat performance. What was a disaster for Big Daddy was
a day of jubilation for Alan Holt and Bill Murray of Shilshole Bay, Washington.
Their Ariel won by more than four minutes, the biggest margin of
the week. There was one other outsider in the top group, soon to gain
fame by winning the North American Silver Star: Scandale, of Albrechtson
and Tell, from Sweden. They came close to winning the third race, being
nipped by Chatterbox just at the finish.

Meanwhile, as always,
there was much tough racing going on throughout the fleet. The competition
was keen, as gold, silver and blue stars were strewn far down the line,
hoping to stay alive but slowly fading from the leaders' sight.

To detail each race
would become repetitive. After all, how many ways can you spell Bever,
Burnham and Buchan? It was Buchan at first, winning the Elder Memorial
Trophy. By midweek Burnham led the other two, each separated by one point,
to win the Vanderveer. At the end of the fourth race, the same three were
tied for the lead. Now the Gold Star depended on one race! In the grand
finale, these three all jumped off to excellent starts. Bever had the
best, and perhaps this was the difference, Maché was never
headed. It was the necessary frosting to complete the cake. The World's
Championship went to Bever and "Four Bar Charlie" Lewsadder
in the midst of the shouting and whistle-tooting of hundreds of spectators.

Worthy of note were
the constant capabilities of the top boats to come through, although at
times being back in the ruck. The top boats had boat speed, an absolute
"must" to win in this kind of competition. It is significant
that, even though the Three B's were closely watching each other in the
final race under the highest possible tension, while the others could
sail as they chose, the Big Three still rounded the first mark ahead of
all the rest.

One could observe
differences in style of sailing. Maché always appeared to
be strapped very flat and pointing high, although it didn't impair her
speed. Possibly it helped them to be the lightest skipper and crew of
the major contenders. Chatterbox appeared to be slightly eased
and driving off, while Frolic was somewhere in between the two.
Whereas the latest tendency seems to be toward straighter leaches with
slightly more curve in the luff, Bever's sail had a bit more roach on
the leach than the others. With the wind conditions as spotty as they
were, it was difficult to observe any correlation between speed and boat
weights. Sometimes the heaviest boats passed very light boats downwind.
(Thirteen boats in the fleet weighed in lighter than Maché.)

It seemed to me that
there was again a swing toward gadgets, reels, adjusting mechanisms and
the like. Almost every boat was experimenting with some method or fitting
for doing something better. But it is getting more and more difficult
to make any breakthrough by means of superior equipment. In this regatta
there did not appear to be any advantage due to the use of special equipment.
The availability of excellent boats, rigs, sails and hardware has put
the emphasis back where it belongs: on the skipper and crew. The overall
quality of the boats was exceedingly high; there was not a slow boat in
the fleet.

The races were excellently
run by a competent committee headed by William Severance. Marks were accurately
located, spectator boats were controlled, and the general conduct of the
races was beyond criticism.